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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789532">A Place We Knew</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/100thatwitch/pseuds/100thatwitch'>100thatwitch</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Divergence - Post-Hogwarts, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Facebook: Harmony &amp; Co., Family Feels, Family Fluff, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry Potter Raises Teddy Lupin, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Post-Hogwarts, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:15:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789532</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/100thatwitch/pseuds/100thatwitch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry wakes up in the middle of the night to have a discussion with Hermione about their future. </p><p> </p><p>(Follow up to Lightning, but this is a stand-alone if you want it to be.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>137</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Place We Knew</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote Lightning, and then needed to write more... you know how it is. If you're into this kind of fluff, I suggest you check out my longer, WIP fic. </p><p>The song is important, as usual, and I live for your reviews.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <em>“Dancing in hotel rooms, it was just me and you</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>We wouldn't sleep all night with you sitting by my side</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>And every moment we had stolen was a feeling</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>'Cause it never mattered where we were, 'cause we were falling in love</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>'Cause your heart is my home, your heart is my home</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>Your heart is my home, and I'm not letting go”</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>- “A Place We Knew,” Dean Lewis</em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <em>September 1st, 2010</em>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">He finds her in the dark, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her close. She moans quietly, rolls over, and presses her face into his neck. It will be hours until there’s light, and he just wants to lay there for hours and feel the sweet comfort of her weight. Her very presence calms him.</p><p class="p1">He thought he knew everything about her. Eighteen years of knowing someone, of living with them, of fighting with them — he had thought he learned all her secrets. He thought he could not love her anymore than he did the day night he kissed her. And yet whatever he felt that day dulled in comparison to what he felt right now. His love then had been a puddle compared to the ocean his love was now, and he was happily drowning. And falling in love with her, day after day, was a renewal and a revelation. He had known how she bit her lip when she was reading a particularly thorny passage, but now he knows that also bites her lip when he compliments her. He had thought he had known every way she could say his name, but now he’s learning the way she sounds after she wakes up, after he kisses her, the way she whispers his name in his ear when they’re in bed together.</p><p class="p1">Despite his best efforts not to wake her, she nuzzles into his neck. “Can’t sleep?” She asks, her voice heavy from slumber.</p><p class="p1">“No,” he admits, hating the notes of anxiety in his voice.</p><p class="p1">There’s silence, and she says quietly, “I’m going to miss him too.” His stomach lurches, and he presses his lips to her forehead. He doesn’t know how she always knows what he’s thinking. It’s been this way before, and it’s disconcerting - but he also loves it. Their relationship is quiet, stable, loving. It has none of the external drama that plagued their youth and just the steadying joy that was his lifeline as a teenager. He finds comfort in her, strength in her very existence.</p><p class="p1">“I’ve already taken time off when they gave us the visiting days,” she says, and he falls in love with her all over again, which he thought was impossible. Of course she did. Of course her first instinct was to make sure that she could go with him, despite her busy schedule. Despite she has no obligation. This is one of the myriad of reasons why he loves her.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">When he kissed her, she told him she was sure. And he tries so hard to let her know how loved she is. She’s not one for grand gestures, so he shows his love in the cups of tea he makes in the morning and the sandwiches he leaves for since he knows she forgets to eat. He does it in tucking stray curls back into her bonnet when she sleeps.</p><p class="p1">It’s been a glorious summer. Teddy was thrilled to hear Harry finally found the courage to tell Hermione he loved her, and that Hermione reciprocated it. Their friends had known this coming, how could they not? They accepted it without question, without comment. Teddy spent the summer with his myriad of cousins who wanted to hear every detail about Hogwarts, holding breathlessly onto every word. They’ve spent the summer lazily talking with their friends in back gardens, watching the children play, splashed in golden sunlight. And the thing Harry cherishes most is leaving the events with his mismatched yet perfectly stitched together family. She stays more nights than not, and Harry loves coming home after a long shift to find Hermione and Teddy on the sofa watching telly, Hermione napping lightly, knackered after her long day as deputy minister. This is happiness, he knows.</p><p class="p1">He feels her sit up next to him, and he wordlessly lights the lantern next to him with a silent <em>Lumos</em>.</p><p class="p1">“Are you ok?” She asks. “I know you had a really hard time last year.”</p><p class="p1">He nods. “I don’t want him to go, but I have you now. It’s a lot better when you’re around,” he admits, and pulls in to kiss her. It’s slow, tender. She runs a hand through his hair, and he brings her in so that she’s flush against him. He needs her, and he needs her to know that. After a minute, they break apart for air.</p><p class="p1">“We should go on holiday,” he says. “Your birthday is coming up, we haven’t gone away just us yet.”</p><p class="p1">She leans back against the headboard. “I’m turning thirty one, it’s not a big deal.”</p><p class="p1">“It’s the first birthday you’ve had since we’ve gotten together,” he says, “so it’s a big deal.”</p><p class="p1">“You’ve known me for 19 birthdays,” she counters.</p><p class="p1">“And I was an idiot for all of them, so indulge me,” he presses his forehead against hers, and laces his fingers through hers.</p><p class="p1">“If that’s what you want,” she laughs, and her laugh is light, almost magical.</p><p class="p1">“I want a baby,” he says, the words tumbling out. She’s expressionless, the words hanging in the air, and his heart begins to pound. He’s been thinking this for weeks now, as he watches her play with Teddy and cuddle their friends’ children.</p><p class="p1">“I love you,” she says slowly, and his breath catches.</p><p class="p1">The pause is electric, and he’s trying to keep his thoughts from racing.</p><p class="p1">“But Teddy,” she says. “I don’t want Teddy to feel like he’s being replaced or not as much part of this family once a new baby comes along.”</p><p class="p1">Merlin, how much more could he love this woman, he wonders.</p><p class="p1">“He asked me last year what would happen when I had kids,” Harry says, absent-mindedly pushing one of her curls that has come loose from her bonnet behind her ear. “I told him he’s always going to be my first, my number one. He <em>is</em> my child.”</p><p class="p1">She lays her head on his chest, and he’s still amazed at how perfect she fits there, like he was made to hold her. He wraps his arms around her. He wants to preserve this moment forever, the stillness of the night and the warmth of her against him.</p><p class="p1">“I have a thousand questions and a million objections,” she says, looking up at him. “On one hand, my instinct is to be rational. We can’t. You’re an Auror, you’re gone so often, and its dangerous. And I’m Deputy Minister - well, you know my schedule.”</p><p class="p1">Harry thinks to all the stolen moments in her office, where he’s slipping her a takeaway because he knows she won’t be home until the sun is a distant memory. They’re incredibly busy, and yet they keep finding time for each other, even if its just for her to cuddle into the crook of his arm while she reads seemingly endless budget reports.</p><p class="p1">“Every part of my brain is screaming that logically, this is a bad idea. That we don’t have time, that we have Teddy, that this should be enough. But… all the things that should have been bad ideas — following you every time — turned out to be my best decisions…”</p><p class="p1">She pauses, as if to turn an idea over in her head, and he gazes down at her. How could she hold his heart hostage with just a stop to think? How did she have this tight a grip on him without even trying?</p><p class="p1">She moves back up to his face, her fingers still interlaced with his, their bodies so intertwined it is hard to see where one of them begins and the other ends. She presses her forehead to his, and then —</p><p class="p1">“It’s a horrible idea, and the thought of it makes me happier than I’ve ever been,” she whispers.</p><p class="p1">“Is that a yes?” He asks, not daring to believe his luck.</p><p class="p1">She nods, and his view becomes a kaleidoscope of colours, as if joy has erupted from every corner of his being and illuminated every part of his world.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> Joy<em>, </em>he thinks. This is what unbridled, glorious joy feels like, and he presses his lips against hers.</span></p>
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